So these started out as completley experimental. I just adopted the whole “breakfast cookie” concept and want to try to make them super high in protein, low in sugar, and vegan. I made two batches, one was kind of a cinnamon raisin variety, the second I made reminicent of the whole “black bean brownie” craze (they turned out way better than expected!) But I’ll go in order.

Okay to start out for the cinnamon raisin variety,

-I mashed about a cup and a half of bananas. I actually defrosted some banana coins I had in the freezer, and it worked fine.

-add about a cup and a half almond milk

-add in about two cups quick cook oats

-4 scoops vanilla soy protein

-stevia to your preference

-two big handfuls raisins

-one big handful pepitas

-1/2 tsp baking soda

So mix that all up, preheat the oven, and let it soak until its thick and scoopable. It looked like this:

then grease a cookie sheet with coconut oil, and spread on breakfast size cookies:

put them in a 325 degree oven for about 15 mins!

dwam! these turned out really yummy. the texture was a little strange, almost eggy, but what can you expect from a cookie made of all protein and oats. the flavor was there for sure though.

Okay so now for the more interesting variety. Black bean brownie breakfast cookie. Strange I realize, but they turned out sooo yummy. I really felt like I was eating dessert this morning. Especially with rasberry jam or PB spread on top. nom.

well they live up to their name! they turned out super black, but they are tastyy. The texture is way better than the first batch. more moist, and cake like. And they are sweet enough so it feels like you’re eating a treat. I kept half in the fridge and then half in the freezer, and then took one out and put it in the toaster oven for breakfast. mmmm.

So breakfast is definetly my favorite meal of the day, I literally wake up and the first thing I do is go to the fridge (and start coffee of course). What I’m eatng for breakfast is always changing, it depends on how broke I am, how lazy I am, etc. Before I went vegan my standard breakfast was a whole wheat english muffin with microwaved sausage, egg, and cheese. I would have that every morning, every day of the week. Since I’ve been vegan I’ve had to get more creative. For a while my go-to breakfast was PB on toast with slices of banana and cinnamon, which is delicious, but after a while got minotinious. And often times I was eating more PB than toast (I don’t have a lot of self control with PB). So now a days I try something new a few days of the week, and these past few mornings I’ve snapped pictures of them, they’re not super complicated, but I think worth sharing.

First I’ll talk about these over-night oats that were seriously sooo delicous. It really just reminded me of an oatmeal raisin cookie. And its always a plus that you just pull it out of the fridge when your coffees on the burner and start nomming. No preperation whatsoever. It might look crazy, but it really is yummy, and super healthy. And if the idea of cold mush turns you off, understandable, but at least give it a try before you write off the whole overnight oats concept (I think warm mush is less appealing personally). So what I did is as follows:

-put one serving rolled oats (half cup) in a bowl

-add a handfull of raisins to taste, and a handful of pepitas to taste, and walnuts if desired

-add one scoop of vanilla soy protein powder from Trader Joe’s

-add a bunch of cinnamon

-put a few shakes of stevia extract for sweetness (if you don’t like stevia, choose another form of sweetness, I usually go half and half stevia and agave nectar)

-put in a heaping spoonful of chia seeds

mix that all together, and then fill to the top of the dry matter with unsweetened vanilla almond milk. give it a good mix, and then put it in a safe spot in your fridge. In the morning the oats will have softened, and the chia seeds will have done what they do best, make a nice gel consistancey (and just make it tastier, I love chia seeds)

So this next concoction isn’t just for breakfast, its for anytime this summer, is soo effing tastey. So there’s this craze on the internet about banana vegan “ice cream”, where you put frozen bananas in a food processor and blend it till it has the texture of soft serve. Well this is essentially the same concept. And it really is almost as tastey as ice cream, its not just your average banana smoothie.

Please forgive me for this food “photoshoot”, or lack there of. Yesterday was a lazy day as you can tell by my new amercan apparel leggings (which I wore in public despite the illusion they create for the size of my ass, idgaf). I usually eat this right out of the blender because I don’t have the patience for with dishes if I don’t have to.

We have a really good blender so it usually creates the thick, ice cream consistancy if it decides to cooperate. The recipe is as follows:

-about a bananas worth frozen banana coins (I freeze a ton of banana coins ahead of time and just keep them in a tupperware)

-a half scoop of vanilla soy protein powder (you don’t really notice it, I just like the flavor and texture it gives, you can do it without it for sure)

-one heaping spoonful of carob powder (it tastes better than cocoa powder in this I swear! the flavors go together way better, I can’t explain it)

-sprinkles of stevia for more sweetness (sometimes I do sometimes I don’t)

-splashes of vanilla almond milk for blending

So yeah just put all that in the blender, and add more almond milk when needed. I try to do as little as possible, just enough to make it go, because I like it thick and scoopable. Give it a try! You might fall in love. I’ve even made this for drunk munchies because its that yummy.

but this is what I had for breakfast this morning:

next I’m gonna go into what I’ve been drinking for breakfast lately. I have a HUGE coffee problem. like its literally a ball and chain in my life. I recently got a job at a specialty tea and spice store, so I’ve been trying to cut back on the insane quantities I drink by replacing it with mate and black tea, baby steps. At my new house we don’t have a large coffee maker, which at first was a struggle, because it meant I had to use my single cup coffee maker 3 or 4 times in the morning. seriously a pain in the ass. But then, low and behold, I discovered this stove top esspresso maker:

Seriously a godsend. makes the yummiest coffee and I usually only use it once a day. I do a ratio of 2/3 coffee 1/3 vanilla almond milk and sweetener if I’m in the mood. and it was wayyy cheaper than a real nice coffee maker. And because when I wake up I resemble something from dawn of the dead I usually fill it with coffee grounds and water the night before and then all I have to do is turn the stove on. dwam.

next I’m gonna talk about my new favorite bev., well its always been one of my faves but I’ve been inspired to drink it a lot more since I started at the tea store. Matcha! Its soo good for you, its like drinking ten cups of green tea in one. I’ll give a little run through of how I make. it.

I boil about a 1/4 cup water in the microwave, in a big shallow cup. Then I add one teaspoon matcha powder. Whisk that up until there is a nice froth on the top and there are no clumps.

Once thats done, add your favorite sweetener, and whisk more. Pour that over a cup packed with ice, and then top with almond milk. It should turn out delicious if done correctly. If its bitter or icky, just add more sweeter or milk till you like it. The health benefits make it worth it.

MMMMmmm:)

kind of off-topic but I received this purse that I got off the urban outfitters online store (it was on sale so I was like whatev), and I don’t know how I feel about it-

Its huge. It kind of just reminds me of a duffle bag that took one too many bong rips or something. hmph.

I’m gonna treat this as sort of a product review type thing, as I’m always trying new stuff, especially new vegan stuff. First up is Trader Joe’s yellow curry sauce. This shit is seriously the DANKEST. no joke. I went through this bottle in a few days. Its glorious. I put it on everything that needs sauce (which is everything), however, the ingredient list isn’t as impressive, as canola oil and sugar are the main ingredients. As well as cultured milk (I figured that out half way through), but as i’m not a super strict vegan in the sense that I’m gonna waste food and throw it out. and I honestly don’t know if something like that is something to stress too much about ethically, as it is such a trace amount. Maybe that makes me a non-vegan, don’t know, and I honestly don’t care. If extremests wanna jump my nuts about something like that is laughable, I do the best I can but nobody’s perfect.

Next up is the Tofurky brand hot dogs:

SO GOOD. I haven’t eaten fake meat in ages, so maybe thats why, but I seriously could not stop eating these. They are definetly one of the higher quality fake meat products I’ve tried. I’m not even really a hot dog person but these seriously were so addicting, maybe it was just some sort of subconcious nostalgia. I tried these because they were on sale at my local co-op, and after I discovered how delish they were I went back and bought three more packages. My body is gonna love all this protein after a month of not eating any, I might actually gain some muscle tone back (doubtful). Might I mention that these two products were often consumed together. Yellow curry hot dog….yes.

So to end this random post I’m gonna talk about a new producted that I DIDN’T like. Aka the vegan cheese that fails (idk if there’s one that wins), this vegan rice cheese:the texture was just…worriesome. like wtf. and there was no cheese flavor

So I’m not super busy, but busy enough to where is inconvenient for me to make myself lunch everyday, or at least one thats healthy (I use to live off of pb and j on a tortilla for lunch), and I can’t really afford to buy my food when I’m out. So what I’ve been doing lately is making my salads the night before, when I get back from my run or right before I go to bed. Its cheap, super yummy, and often better than the salad bar at haggen. The ingredients to my salads vary, but I try to include at least one form of protein, and cranberries and peptias are absolutely nessecary. In this one I believe I put red and green lettuce, mushrooms, cukes, edamame, carrots, chia seeds, cranberries, red onion, and sunflower and pumpkin seeds

And because I love dressing soooo much, I usually buy low fat or fat free dressings, usually from trader joes. But even these get expenisve, because I eat a lot of salad. So this time I decided to make my own dressing, and put it back in the same sesame dressing bottle I started with ahaha. what I did was I started with about one serving of the original vinagrette, then dressed it up a bit. In my mini food processor I put:

-two cloves of garlic

-the rest of the dressing

-a splash of apple cider vinegar

-a squeeze of dijon mustard

-a large splash citrus flavored soy sauce

-a generous sprinkle of ground ginger

-the juice of a whole lemon

-two heaping spoonfuls of nutritional yeast

-one tablespoon chia seeds for thickening

Gave that shit a whirl until it looked like a uniform color of neon yellow, and I must say, it turned out amazing. You can use it right away and it’ll work fine, but the nex day give it a shake and the chia seeds will have worked their magic, it sticks to he leaves much better that way. I’ve done the same general process with the balsamic dressing at trader joes, I may document that when the time comes.

so I’ve decided to attempt to make a food blog this summer, its my first summer being vegan, and first summer living on my own. I love cooking and I’m literally obsessed with food, so this blog will document my experiements and failures in the kitchen. You may notice that a lot of what i eat is considered “healthy”. Its just the way I’ve been eating these past couple months, but I honestly think that all the food I eat is dank and delicious in its own healthy vegan way.